During the permanent installation of, in particular, drywall boards to form a ceiling, the current practice is simply a manual one. Typically two men would be required to hold these large, cumbersome and heavy panels in aligned abutment to the joist, whilst it is being attached thereto utilizing drywall screws. Usually, this technique further involves one of the installers supporting the drywall board on his head, thereby freeing his hands so as to enable him to operate a screw gun so as to tighten the permanent drywall screws. This method, disadvantageously, is slow, tiresome and labour intensive.
A commercial floor-mounted hoist which is functional to jack the drywall board upwardly is the only apparatus known to applicant currently available to assist as a temporary support. Deleteriously, however, this device has two major drawbacks. First, it is very expensive and secondly it cannot be used on more difficult to access areas, such as in stairwells, or for cathedral ceilings or non-uniform ceiling arrangements.
Exemplary prior art patents which disclose temporary restraining clamps for wall boards include Canadian Patent 1,192,722 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,446.
The '722 patent teaches a clamp having an L-shaped body, one leg of which is adapted for contact with the panel, and another leg through which passes a screw, extending a distance therebeyond. Unfortunately, this clamp exhibits the disadvantages that it can only be used with a screwdriver, and not a screw gun, and that the screw is bearing the load of the board, and thus is subject to shearing or failure. Furthermore, there is no provision for ensuring that the screw goes into the joist in the exact direction, nor of predetermining the distance of travel of said screw. Finally, because it has to be screwed through the panel, the probability of damage thereto, is increased.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,446 there is described a wallboard support tool, which comprises a tapered screw having a threaded section and a formed head section. A handle having a flat surface and an angled side surface contains the head section of the screw. Again, this tool is not adapted for installation using a screw gun but rather has to be used manually, Furthermore, the screw will form the load bearing member and thus be subject to breakage.
There exists, therefore, the need for an inexpensive method of temporarily suspending the ceiling drywall boards in position so that the permanent drywall screws can be inserted simply, less laboriously and more rapidly.